How to Make Stair Treads From Hardwood Flooring

When you build a staircase, you must makes stair treads, which provide the stairs' walking surface. Generally, stair treads are built from thick plywood or wood boards, but you can create stair treads out of finished wood products, such as hardwood flooring, as well. To make stair treads, you must cut the hardwood flooring down to the appropriate size for each stair and trim the ends of the stairs to work around the banister posts.

Things You'll Need

Measuring tape

Circular saw

Bullnose molding

Screws

Drill

Measure across the staircase from the wall to the stringer that supports the other side, or from one stringer to the other, in the case of a freestanding staircase that doesn’t touch the wall. Measure across a hardwood flooring plank this same width and mark the plank. Use a circular saw to cut the plank to this size.

Measure down a piece of bullnose molding the same width as the plank. Cut the molding with a circular saw.

Put the end of the measuring tape at the back of a horizontal section of a stair stringer. Measure to the front of the horizontal section of the stringer to get the stair depth.

Measure the thickness of the bullnose molding that you cut for the stair. Subtract this measurement from the measurement that you took from the back to front of the stair tread to get the total depth to cut the stair tread. Add approximately 1 inch to this measurement if you want the molding to extend out over the front of the step when installed.

Transfer this depth measurement onto the cut piece of hardwood flooring. Cut the flooring plank lengthwise to this depth.

Create a tread of this size for every horizontal surface on the stair stringers. Use the tread that you cut from the first hardwood flooring plank as a guide to cut the other stair treads. Use the first cut piece of bullnose molding to cut a piece for each stair space as well.

Lay each cut hardwood flooring plank between the wall and stringer or between the two stringers. Secure the planks to the stringers with screws.